5 Reasons to Add Teaching to Your Creative Business + eBook Giveaway!

As an artisan, you have expertise in your craft. Teaching is a great way to share your skills, stimulate interest in your work (and your craft), and earn more money for your business. In today’s post, I’m sharing 5 reasons you should strongly consider adding teaching to your creative business.

Teaching isn’t seasonal

Many creative businesses are seasonal with a high volume of sales happening during a relatively short period during the year. It can be difficult to make these earnings last through the “dry spells.”

By adding teaching to your business, you can make cash flow more regular throughout the year because people are always looking for opportunities to learn new skills and get project inspiration.

Teaching often pays better than other crafty ventures

While there are many possible compensation models for crafts teachers, you can generally earn more per hour (and with less effort) than you can by selling your finished crafts. This allows you to teach just few hours per week (or month) and add a steady source of income to your business.

Teaching builds credibility and reputation

People often assume that those who teach have more talent and skill than others in the field. Students also love to talk about their favorite teachers and share their work with friends and family. In addition, as a teacher you can piggyback on the reputation of the venue where you teach, such as a museum, local charity, or college continuing education program.

Teaching gives your body a break

Many creative business owners spend hours repeating the same motions or hunched in awkward positions bringing their creations to life. While teaching crafts usually includes demonstrations, as a teacher you’ll also spend time walking around a classroom, looking at student work, and doing other activities that are less repetitive. It may give your body a much needed rest after a week of working on projects.

Teaching lets you travel and attend events at a lower cost

Use teaching to subsidize your next trip. Once you establish yourself as a teacher, pitch workshop ideas to venues in city you plan to visit, or submit teaching proposals to events you want to attend.

When I started crocheting I learned by making a doily. I would never recommend that to anyone because the patterns are not always correct and causes a lot of frustration. What I would do now is learn by making a simple scarf and starting out with single crochet to learn how to get the correct tension and ingrain what the stitch is as well as learning how to hold the yarn correctly. From there move to half double, then double crochet and so forth. This allows you to practice each stitch while perfecting your tension and memorizing each stitch. Making a scarf also allows you to rip back the row when needed to fix stitches. I assisted in teaching a beginners crochet class and the main instructor was all over the place in teaching methods and really frustrated the class so I ended up taking over the class and used this method. It worked great and alleviated the frustration level of the class.

I recommend using a large hook and worsted weight yarn or bigger for new students making afghans. They will see their results more quickly. Also start with a simple pattern. After they have finished a few projects this way, they may be ready to try something more advanced or work with finer yarns.

The most important tip that I can give to anyone wanting to learn how to crochet is “never give up”, keep on trying. Even little mistakes can turn into the most beautiful pieces of fabric and, you never know, you might create a brand new stitch…that’s how I learnt.

My best tip for learning crochet is to have patience with yourself. Learning any new skill can be frustrating at times, but once you catch on, you’ll be working through all sorts of patterns and projects.

My best advice to learning to crochet is to be observant and take your time and follow step by step and ASK QUESTIONS!!…don’t feel a question is not appropriate. It is important to you or you wouldn’t’ need to ask it.

I have been crocheting for so long I tend to put my own little spin into things I make from patterns. I still have not tried to teach to much other than family. Would love to try and learn how to teach.

I used to crochet and tat and quilt when I was in my 20’s but with life I didn’t have time to keep up but recently have have retired and now have just crochet my first baby Afghan for my great nephew and up to getting back into it.